The present invention relates to a pattern measuring method, a pattern measuring device and a program, and more particularly to a method, device and program for measuring a pattern in an acquired image.
It has been known to measure a pattern on a semiconductor integrated circuit by using CAD (Computer Aided Design) data. Design data such as CAD data represents intended, ideal geometries of semiconductor devices, so comparison between the CAD data and an actually formed pattern can evaluate a semiconductor manufacturing process. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,175B1 and U.S. 2002/0015518A1 is disclosed a technology which detects an amount of deformation of a pattern with respect to design data by detecting an edge of a pattern to be inspected and an edge of a reference pattern and comparing these detected edges.
As described above, the actually formed pattern exhibits a shape different from that of the design data because of manufacturing process effects. Many different shapes of patterns are formed on a semiconductor wafer. There is no definite criterion for position alignment between the design data and the actual pattern and thus it is not possible to measure, according to some reference, a degree to which the pattern being inspected is deviated from an ideal pattern represented by the design data or how much the pattern is deformed.